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Author Topic: fooling around with theater view skins in mc 12  (Read 14008 times)

gappie

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fooling around with theater view skins in mc 12
« on: January 10, 2008, 07:05:36 am »

ive been using my own theater view skin for a long time. because Theater View is working now as i like i decided to make a new skin. since i understand that there are people that dont trust themselves to make their own skins, i thought it might be an idea to shows somethings as i go along.

i use obsidian as a starting point. go to the place where mc is installed. go to fullskin and copy for instance obsidian beside the other skins and change the name of the folder.
part 1: playing now
for playing now i dont need the collumn at the left.
in the new skin folder go to main.xml, and open it with for instance notepad. under layout you find a part called layout name="playing now". in there i deleted the whole string with Name="Navigation" in it.
then wanted the layout different. the field that shows what is playing now (the PIP) got very streched so i thought it would be a nice idea to get the files that are playing at the rightside of the screen. for that i changed the base of the PIP to NavigationBackground, and changed the size of the navigation background and the pip.
besides that i took away the titlebar (showing where you are) and the empty strings (where name is empty)

first it looked like:
Code: [Select]
<Layout Name="Playing Now" Location="Playing Now\***" >
<!-- Navigation area -->
<Item Name="NavigationBackground" Placement="Left" Size="[Button Width] + [Overscan Left] + 16" />
<Item Name="Search" Base="NavigationBackground" Condition="If(Search, 1, 0)" Placement="Inside" Size="8" />
<Item Name="Navigation" Base="NavigationBackground" Condition="If(Search, 0, 1)" Placement="Inside" Size="8" />

<!-- View area -->
<Item Name="ViewBackground" Placement="All" />
<Item Name="Titlebar" Base="ViewBackground" Placement="Top" Size="[Title Text Height] + 16" Crop="0" />
<Item Name="LocationPicture" Base="ViewBackground" Placement="Center" Size="80%" />
<Item Name="PIP" Base="ViewBackground" Placement="Bottom" Size="49.5%" Crop="1%" />
<Item Name="View" Base="ViewBackground" Placement="All" />
</Layout>

after:
Code: [Select]
<Layout Name="Playing Now" Location="Playing Now\***" >
<!-- Navigation area -->
<Item Name="NavigationBackground" Placement="Left" Size="70%" />
<Item Name="PIP" Base="NavigationBackground" Placement="Bottom" Size="100%" Crop="1%" />
<!-- View area -->
<Item Name="ViewBackground" Placement="All" />
<Item Name="LocationPicture" Base="ViewBackground" Placement="Center" Size="80%" />
<Item Name="View" Base="ViewBackground" Placement="All" />
</Layout>

the result was:

maybe later more.
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neFAST

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Re: fooling around with theater view skins
« Reply #1 on: January 10, 2008, 04:04:41 pm »

Just one word: woooow!
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gappie

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Re: fooling around with theater view skins
« Reply #2 on: January 12, 2008, 04:35:10 am »

thanks.  :)

i just stumbled over an interesting option for the opening screen of Theater view.
not sure if i like it, still thought ill post it.


the opening screen is set in the layout name="root" part of the xml.
i changed it to:
Code: [Select]
<Layout Name="Root" Location="" >
<!-- Navigation area -->

<!-- View area -->
<Item Name="ViewBackground" Placement="All" />
<Item Name="Titlebar" Base="ViewBackground" Placement="Top" Size="[Title Text Height] + 16" Crop="0" />
<Item Name="View" Base="ViewBackground" Placement="Inside" Size="8" />
</Layout>
from the original i took the whole navigation area away including the 'Item Name="Navigation"' which is the list with playing now and audio etc.
i introduced instead of that the list as used in the other views as found under the standard layout. Item Name="View".
since it got a bit messy i took the cube also away: Item Name="LocationPicture"
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gappie

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Re: fooling around with theater view skins
« Reply #3 on: January 12, 2008, 05:23:20 am »

since i liked the way how playing now looked in the first post i thought it could be a nice way to go through my images the same way. to do this i had to define images seperatly, because i dont want that for video or audio. in the main.xml you see the layout for playing now, for the root and standard. standard is the rest. now to define images i copied the layout from standard (from Layout Name="Standard" Location="***" till /Layout )and pasted it above the standard layout. then i changed the Name="Standard" Location="***" from what i justed pasted to Name="Images" Location="Images\***". this defines the layout for images separate from the other layouts.

now i wanted to look the the images the same as playing now, so i changed the navigation background etc the same as in my first post. but i also wanted to see where i am, so i had to add the titlebar. but this should show above the picture. to get that i changed the Item Name="Titlebar" Base="ViewBackground" to Item Name="Titlebar" Base="NavigationBackground".

i ended up with this:
Code: [Select]
<Layout Name="Images" Location="Images\***" >
<!-- Navigation area -->
<Item Name="NavigationBackground" Placement="Left" Size="70%" />
<Item Name="Titlebar" Base="NavigationBackground" Placement="Top" Size="[Title Text Height] + 16" Crop="0" />
<Item Name="PIP" Base="NavigationBackground" Placement="Bottom" Size="100%" Crop="1%" />
<!-- View area -->
<Item Name="ViewBackground" Placement="All" />
<Item Name="View" Base="ViewBackground" Placement="All" />
</Layout>




to get this to work like i wanted to, i had to set jump on play in the options of theater view to none.

im done for now.

gab
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ThoBar

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Re: fooling around with theater view skins
« Reply #4 on: January 14, 2008, 01:42:45 am »

Gappie, nice work!

You seem to have a pretty good idea of what's going on, I wonder if you'd mind filling in the Theater View skinning wiki page under "Layout Sections". It's the bit I understand the least at this point (Well, least confident I have it correct)

[Edit: forgot the link]  http://wiki.jrmediacenter.com/index.php/Theater_View_Skinning_Tutorial

If you'd rather, you can provide me with the details as you understand them, and I'll pretty it up, and put it up there...

Cheers,
C.

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gappie

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Re: fooling around with theater view skins
« Reply #5 on: January 14, 2008, 05:46:31 am »

Gappie, nice work!

You seem to have a pretty good idea of what's going on, I wonder if you'd mind filling in the Theater View skinning wiki page under "Layout Sections". It's the bit I understand the least at this point (Well, least confident I have it correct)

[Edit: forgot the link]  http://wiki.jrmediacenter.com/index.php/Theater_View_Skinning_Tutorial

If you'd rather, you can provide me with the details as you understand them, and I'll pretty it up, and put it up there...

Cheers,
C.


you did a nice job there! i will take a look at the layout part later today or tomorrow.
thanks
gab

ps: one thing that could be added in the text part is that also [zone] could be used. i use for instance
Item Text="[zone] - [Location]" Location="***" TextColor="FFFFFF" Rect="Titlebar\1,1,99,99" Capitalization="0" Alignment="0" Size="[Title Text Height]"
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neFAST

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Re: fooling around with theater view skins
« Reply #6 on: January 14, 2008, 06:41:03 am »

I second that request.
Among other things I'd like to know how can I change the icon animation on main menu? (zoom in bluetoo, animated cube in other skins)
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ThoBar

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Re: fooling around with theater view skins
« Reply #7 on: January 14, 2008, 06:50:38 pm »

@gappie
Thanks, for the Zone info, I've added it.

I second that request.
Among other things I'd like to know how can I change the icon animation on main menu? (zoom in bluetoo, animated cube in other skins)
More info to go into the wiki...

It's in the Pictures section... (note the Style value. I've put in what I have figured out in terms of the style values.)

<PICTURE>
   <Item Bitmap="Pictures\ViewBackground.png" Location="***" Rect="ViewBackground\0,[Overscan Top],100,100" Alpha="95" Background="1" />
   <Item Bitmap="Pictures\NavigationBackground.png" Location="***" Rect="NavigationBackground\0,0,100,100" Alpha="95" Background="1" />
   <Item Bitmap="Pictures\LocationBackground.png" Location="***" Rect="Titlebar\0,0,100,100" Alignment="1" Alpha="95" Background="1" />
   <Item Bitmap="..\shared\Pictures\[Location].png" Location="*" Rect="LocationPicture\25,25,75,75" Alpha="75" Alignment="1" Style="1" Background="1" />
   <Item Bitmap="..\shared\Pictures\[Location].png" Location="[location]" Rect="ViewBackground\0,0,50,50" Alpha="75" Alignment="0" Style="0" Background="1" />
   <-- Style 0=Shrink, 1=Rotating Cube, 2=nothing visible (fullscreen)?, 3=solid white cube,  >3=same as 0?, -->
</PICTURE>
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thurston

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Re: fooling around with theater view skins
« Reply #8 on: January 16, 2008, 09:35:41 am »

Gappie & confishy-
Thanks for posting!  I tried doing some Theater View skin editing myself a couple of weeks ago and found it pretty difficult, especially given the limited information available on the topic.  Any advice or explanation you can continue giving is very much appreciated.

Thanks!
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neFAST

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Re: fooling around with theater view skins
« Reply #9 on: January 16, 2008, 02:57:14 pm »

Thanks for the wiki update!
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gappie

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Re: fooling around with theater view skins
« Reply #10 on: January 16, 2008, 07:12:11 pm »

well, i just have finished (temporarely, i guess  ::) ) the skin. here are some impressions for those interested: http://pix01.com/AJ@TkVs
i also tried to add something to the wiki page. but the < > --- and what ever made such a mess, that i stopped. will try later to post something here.
it is also easier and more fun to tell how something could be accomplished then to write how it all is done.
for those who want to start to make there own skin, and get stuck. just start a thread here. there are some people who will help. and experiment, the wiki page from confishy gives enough handles to start to play around. and nobody knows it all, even the guys from mc.  :)
be creative.  :)
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neFAST

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Re: fooling around with theater view skins
« Reply #11 on: January 17, 2008, 02:16:15 am »

Cool skin! Can you just show us how you achieve your "cube circle" menu?
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gappie

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Re: fooling around with theater view skins
« Reply #12 on: January 17, 2008, 05:22:39 am »

Cool skin! Can you just show us how you achieve your "cube circle" menu?
thanks. im happy with it.

to get the cube circle:
under <pictures> you find:
Code: [Select]
<Item Bitmap="..\Shared\Pictures\[Location].png" Location="*" Rect="LocationPicture\0,0,100,100" Alpha="35" Alignment="1" Style="1" Background="1" />
the bitmap= defines the picture used in the cube (or as a normal picture depended on style)
the location= defines when (for the main menu) and where (for anything else) the cube is placed, so when audio is selected in the main menu it uses the audio cube.
the rect defines where it is placed in the screen.

because i wanted to use my own pics i copied the picture folder from the shared fullskin folder to my own skin. this changed the bitmap to Bitmap="Pictures\[Location].png".
now instead of [location].png you can use audio.png and video.png to be more precise about which one you want. by defining the location and where to put the picture you can set which cube should show when.
i ended up with a huge list, since for every item choosen on the main list i wanted to have the cubes on different places.
Code: [Select]
<Item Bitmap="Pictures\Playing now.png" Location="Playing now" Rect="LocationPicture\25,25,75,75" Alpha="100" Alignment="1" Style="1" Background="0" />
<Item Bitmap="Pictures\audio.png" Location="playing now" Rect="LocationPicture\70,10,80,20" Alpha="100" Alignment="1" Style="1" Background="0" />
<Item Bitmap="Pictures\Images.png" Location="playing now" Rect="LocationPicture\80,55,90,65" Alpha="100" Alignment="1" Style="1" Background="0" />
<Item Bitmap="Pictures\video.png" Location="playing now" Rect="LocationPicture\45,90,55,100" Alpha="100" Alignment="1" Style="1" Background="0" />
<Item Bitmap="Pictures\cd &amp; dvd.png" Location="playing now" Rect="LocationPicture\10,55,20,65" Alpha="100" Alignment="1" Style="1" Background="0" />
<Item Bitmap="Pictures\exit.png" Location="playing now" Rect="LocationPicture\20,10,30,20" Alpha="100" Alignment="1" Style="1" Background="0" />

<Item Bitmap="Pictures\audio.png" Location="audio" Rect="LocationPicture\25,25,75,75" Alpha="100" Alignment="1" Style="1" Background="0" />
<Item Bitmap="Pictures\Images.png" Location="audio" Rect="LocationPicture\70,10,80,20" Alpha="100" Alignment="1" Style="1" Background="0" />
<Item Bitmap="Pictures\video.png" Location="audio" Rect="LocationPicture\80,55,90,65" Alpha="100" Alignment="1" Style="1" Background="0" />
<Item Bitmap="Pictures\cd &amp; dvd.png" Location="audio" Rect="LocationPicture\45,90,55,100" Alpha="100" Alignment="1" Style="1" Background="0" />
<Item Bitmap="Pictures\exit.png" Location="audio" Rect="LocationPicture\10,55,20,65" Alpha="100" Alignment="1" Style="1" Background="0" />
<Item Bitmap="Pictures\Playing now.png" Location="audio" Rect="LocationPicture\20,10,30,20" Alpha="100" Alignment="1" Style="1" Background="0" />

<Item Bitmap="Pictures\Images.png" Location="Images" Rect="LocationPicture\25,25,75,75" Alpha="100" Alignment="1" Style="1" Background="0" />
<Item Bitmap="Pictures\video.png" Location="images" Rect="LocationPicture\70,10,80,20" Alpha="100" Alignment="1" Style="1" Background="0" />
<Item Bitmap="Pictures\cd &amp; dvd.png" Location="images" Rect="LocationPicture\80,55,90,65" Alpha="100" Alignment="1" Style="1" Background="0" />
<Item Bitmap="Pictures\exit.png" Location="images" Rect="LocationPicture\45,90,55,100" Alpha="100" Alignment="1" Style="1" Background="0" />
<Item Bitmap="Pictures\Playing now.png" Location="images" Rect="LocationPicture\10,55,20,65" Alpha="100" Alignment="1" Style="1" Background="0" />
<Item Bitmap="Pictures\audio.png" Location="images" Rect="LocationPicture\20,10,30,20" Alpha="100" Alignment="1" Style="1" Background="0" />

<Item Bitmap="Pictures\video.png" Location="video" Rect="LocationPicture\25,25,75,75" Alpha="100" Alignment="1" Style="1" Background="0" />
<Item Bitmap="Pictures\cd &amp; dvd.png" Location="Video" Rect="LocationPicture\70,10,80,20" Alpha="100" Alignment="1" Style="1" Background="0" />
<Item Bitmap="Pictures\exit.png" Location="video" Rect="LocationPicture\80,55,90,65" Alpha="100" Alignment="1" Style="1" Background="0" />
<Item Bitmap="Pictures\Playing now.png" Location="Video" Rect="LocationPicture\45,90,55,100" Alpha="100" Alignment="1" Style="1" Background="0" />
<Item Bitmap="Pictures\audio.png" Location="Video" Rect="LocationPicture\10,55,20,65" Alpha="100" Alignment="1" Style="1" Background="0" />
<Item Bitmap="Pictures\Images.png" Location="Video" Rect="LocationPicture\20,10,30,20" Alpha="100" Alignment="1" Style="1" Background="0" />

<Item Bitmap="Pictures\cd &amp; dvd.png" Location="cd &amp; dvd" Rect="LocationPicture\25,25,75,75" Alpha="100" Alignment="1" Style="1" Background="0" />
<Item Bitmap="Pictures\exit.png" Location="cd &amp; dvd" Rect="LocationPicture\70,10,80,20" Alpha="100" Alignment="1" Style="1" Background="0" />
<Item Bitmap="Pictures\Playing now.png" Location="cd &amp; dvd" Rect="LocationPicture\80,55,90,65" Alpha="100" Alignment="1" Style="1" Background="0" />
<Item Bitmap="Pictures\audio.png" Location="cd &amp; dvd" Rect="LocationPicture\45,90,55,100" Alpha="100" Alignment="1" Style="1" Background="0" />
<Item Bitmap="Pictures\Images.png" Location="cd &amp; dvd" Rect="LocationPicture\10,55,20,65" Alpha="100" Alignment="1" Style="1" Background="0" />
<Item Bitmap="Pictures\video.png" Location="cd &amp; dvd" Rect="LocationPicture\20,10,30,20" Alpha="100" Alignment="1" Style="1" Background="0" />

<Item Bitmap="Pictures\exit.png" Location="exit" Rect="LocationPicture\25,25,75,75" Alpha="100" Alignment="1" Style="1" Background="0" />
<Item Bitmap="Pictures\Playing now.png" Location="exit" Rect="LocationPicture\70,10,80,20" Alpha="100" Alignment="1" Style="1" Background="0" />
<Item Bitmap="Pictures\audio.png" Location="exit" Rect="LocationPicture\80,55,90,65" Alpha="100" Alignment="1" Style="1" Background="0" />
<Item Bitmap="Pictures\Images.png" Location="exit" Rect="LocationPicture\45,90,55,100" Alpha="100" Alignment="1" Style="1" Background="0" />
<Item Bitmap="Pictures\video.png" Location="exit" Rect="LocationPicture\10,55,20,65" Alpha="100" Alignment="1" Style="1" Background="0" />
<Item Bitmap="Pictures\cd &amp; dvd.png" Location="exit" Rect="LocationPicture\20,10,30,20" Alpha="100" Alignment="1" Style="1" Background="0" />
when you look at the first six sentences you see that when playing now is choosen (the location) all the other items i use like audio, exit etc (the bitmap) are also placed somewhere (the rect) on the screen. the next lines are for what happend when audio is selected, then video etc.
note that for cd & dvd you have to use Location="cd &amp; dvd" and when pointing to the bit map called cd & dvd "Pictures\cd &amp; dvd.png"

i hope this is a bit clear. otherwise, please ask.

succes
gab
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gappie

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Re: fooling around with theater view skins
« Reply #13 on: January 24, 2008, 06:44:33 am »

i wanted to add a last chapter. one of the views of the previous posts shows how i made a view to browse my images while still showing the image that is playing now. i really like. but i do miss the fullscreen browsing at times. i wandered if i could make two ways of browsing images. and it can

i use a special view (actualy more but on this machine just one) for theaterview called Theater View. with the view button in theaterview i have choosen this view to be standard. now inside Theater View i made an view called fullscreen.


in the main.xml i made copy of the image layout part and putted it above the original (this is important, the xml is read from top till bottom). and in the copy i changed the Images\*** to Images\Fullscreen\***. took the PIP out of there and to my suprise it worked.


clicking on fullscreen gives:


the code:
Code: [Select]
<Layout Name="Images" Location="Images\Fullscreen\***" >
<!-- Navigation area -->
<Item Name="NavigationBackground" Placement="top" Size="7%" />
<Item Name="Titlebar" Base="NavigationBackground" Placement="Top" Size="[Title Text Height]" Crop="0" />
<!-- View area -->
<Item Name="ViewBackground" Placement="All" />
<Item Name="View" Base="ViewBackground" Placement="All" />
</Layout>

<Layout Name="Images" Location="Images\***" >
<!-- Navigation area -->
<Item Name="NavigationBackground" Placement="top" Size="7%" />
<Item Name="Titlebar" Base="NavigationBackground" Placement="Top" Size="[Title Text Height]" Crop="0" />
<!-- View area -->
<Item Name="ViewBackground" Placement="All" />
<Item Name="PIP" Base="ViewBackground" Placement="left" Size="70%" Crop="1%" />
<Item Name="View" Base="ViewBackground" Placement="All" />
</Layout>
:)
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ThoBar

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Re: fooling around with theater view skins
« Reply #14 on: January 24, 2008, 10:52:31 pm »

Nice work gappie.

Does anyone know of a way to turn off the Video on the "Playing Now" button in the navigation menu? (Without hiding the entire menu)

I want to put a video window elsewhere on the screen, but you can only have one per-screen, and the navigation window button seems to take precedence.

Cheers,
C.
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thurston

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Re: fooling around with theater view skins
« Reply #15 on: January 31, 2008, 09:34:02 am »

Does anyone have any interest in posting some pictures in the Theaterview skinning tutorial?  The standard view skinning tutorial has pictures with the different sections of each screen labelled by the .png files that relate to them.  It makes the standard view skinning tutorial easy to follow, and the lack of them in the theaterview skinning tutorial very difficult (for me anyway) to follow.
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neFAST

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Re: fooling around with theater view skins
« Reply #16 on: January 31, 2008, 03:08:51 pm »

I second that.
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gappie

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Re: fooling around with theater view skins
« Reply #17 on: January 31, 2008, 05:38:49 pm »

Nice work gappie.

Does anyone know of a way to turn off the Video on the "Playing Now" button in the navigation menu? (Without hiding the entire menu)

I want to put a video window elsewhere on the screen, but you can only have one per-screen, and the navigation window button seems to take precedence.

Cheers,
C.
thanks
im sorry confishy. i think my answer is no. but i actualy do not realy understand what you are asking. "to turn off the Video on the "Playing Now" button in the navigation menu" i have no idea what you mean.
you can have one window showing pics or video, but you can detach the the diplay, if that is what you mean? which is not the same as full screen (ctrl 5 VS ctrl 3).
maybe some sreens could help to show what you want to aclomplish (sp).

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gappie

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Re: fooling around with theater view skins
« Reply #18 on: January 31, 2008, 05:52:03 pm »

Does anyone have any interest in posting some pictures in the Theaterview skinning tutorial?  The standard view skinning tutorial has pictures with the different sections of each screen labelled by the .png files that relate to them.  It makes the standard view skinning tutorial easy to follow, and the lack of them in the theaterview skinning tutorial very difficult (for me anyway) to follow.
maybe it would be nice. there is a difference between the two though. inside the standard view there is a lot possible and those thing are fairly well seperated from each other. in Thv the possebilities are much less. only a few items can be manipulated. ive done two wiki pages, and when there is more then text in it, things like codes and or tables, it is such a sisyphus job to get that done. especialy because with the things you can manipulate there is much possible but somethings frustratingly impossible.
with this thread i hoped that people just start to play around. and when you want to acclompish something, just start a thread and ask.

and neFast, did the explanation about the cubes help.

 :)
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Doof

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Re: fooling around with theater view skins
« Reply #19 on: February 01, 2008, 11:02:36 am »

So is this skin available for download somewhere? ;)
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thurston

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Re: fooling around with theater view skins
« Reply #20 on: February 01, 2008, 12:55:14 pm »

Hey Gappie-
What kind of amp is that in the picture?
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gappie

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Re: fooling around with theater view skins
« Reply #21 on: February 01, 2008, 04:27:37 pm »

Hey Gappie-
What kind of amp is that in the picture?
that is a suprem amp. some old german guitar amp. bought two of those, this one and a small one. sweet sound but there is a lot of work that has to be done on them.
here are some pics i took some years ago. http://pix01.com/GK@9rzr
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gappie

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how to get search when not using the left column in Theater View
« Reply #22 on: November 29, 2008, 03:34:19 am »

i thought i should add a bit. this works in 12 and when the nested views come back in 13 also makes sense in 13.
all the views above dont have the left column with the play, back, home etc button. now there is one thing i sometimes miss. and that is the search button. one way to solve this is adding this to the script
Code: [Select]
<Layout Name="Search" Location="*\Zoek\***" >
<!-- Navigation area -->
<Item Name="NavigationBackground" Placement="Left" Size="[Button Width] + [Overscan Left] + 16" />
<Item Name="Search" Base="NavigationBackground" Condition="If(Search, 1, 0)" Placement="Inside" Size="8" />
<Item Name="Navigation" Base="NavigationBackground" Condition="If(Search, 0, 1)" Placement="Inside" Size="8" />
<!-- View area -->
<Item Name="ViewBackground" Placement="All" />
<Item Name="View" Base="ViewBackground" Placement="All" />
</Layout>

the secret is here: Location="*\Zoek\***"
now when you make a view called zoek (its dutch for search, but shows the point better then when i used search), on the first level, and you pick that view in Theater View, you get a view with the left column and the search button.
because the * at the start it works for images video and audio, as long as they have a view called 'zoek'.

now one thing i havent figured out yet is: apperently the script uses two states here If(Search, 0, 1)
and standard, search is of. i could not find a way to change the script so that search would be on in that part. would be one cleck less end look much nicer. maybe someone knows how to do that...


 :)
gab

edit: cleaned the code a bit
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mabes

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Re: fooling around with theater view skins
« Reply #23 on: December 23, 2008, 12:24:52 pm »

ive been using my own theater view skin for a long time. because Theater View is working now as i like i decided to make a new skin. since i understand that there are people that dont trust themselves to make their own skins, i thought it might be an idea to shows somethings as i go along.

i use obsidian as a starting point. go to the place where mc is installed. go to fullskin and copy for instance obsidian beside the other skins and change the name of the folder.
part 1: playing now
for playing now i dont need the collumn at the left.
in the new skin folder go to main.xml, and open it with for instance notepad. under layout you find a part called layout name="playing now". in there i deleted the whole string with Name="Navigation" in it.
then wanted the layout different. the field that shows what is playing now (the PIP) got very streched so i thought it would be a nice idea to get the files that are playing at the rightside of the screen. for that i changed the base of the PIP to NavigationBackground, and changed the size of the navigation background and the pip.
besides that i took away the titlebar (showing where you are) and the empty strings (where name is empty)

first it looked like:
Code: [Select]
<Layout Name="Playing Now" Location="Playing Now\***" >
<!-- Navigation area -->
<Item Name="NavigationBackground" Placement="Left" Size="[Button Width] + [Overscan Left] + 16" />
<Item Name="Search" Base="NavigationBackground" Condition="If(Search, 1, 0)" Placement="Inside" Size="8" />
<Item Name="Navigation" Base="NavigationBackground" Condition="If(Search, 0, 1)" Placement="Inside" Size="8" />

<!-- View area -->
<Item Name="ViewBackground" Placement="All" />
<Item Name="Titlebar" Base="ViewBackground" Placement="Top" Size="[Title Text Height] + 16" Crop="0" />
<Item Name="LocationPicture" Base="ViewBackground" Placement="Center" Size="80%" />
<Item Name="PIP" Base="ViewBackground" Placement="Bottom" Size="49.5%" Crop="1%" />
<Item Name="View" Base="ViewBackground" Placement="All" />
</Layout>

after:
Code: [Select]
<Layout Name="Playing Now" Location="Playing Now\***" >
<!-- Navigation area -->
<Item Name="NavigationBackground" Placement="Left" Size="70%" />
<Item Name="PIP" Base="NavigationBackground" Placement="Bottom" Size="100%" Crop="1%" />
<!-- View area -->
<Item Name="ViewBackground" Placement="All" />
<Item Name="LocationPicture" Base="ViewBackground" Placement="Center" Size="80%" />
<Item Name="View" Base="ViewBackground" Placement="All" />
</Layout>

the result was:

maybe later more.

I would like to do something similiar for the latest Obsidian skin. Currently we have the track listings on the left, to the right a thumbnail and details of the highlighted track, and on the bottom a thumbnail of the currently playing album. I just want to switch the positions of the latter 2.

Will I be able to do this simply by reversing "right" and "bottom" under Placement?
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gappie

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Re: fooling around with theater view skins
« Reply #24 on: December 23, 2008, 03:55:03 pm »

I would like to do something similiar for the latest Obsidian skin. Currently we have the track listings on the left, to the right a thumbnail and details of the highlighted track, and on the bottom a thumbnail of the currently playing album. I just want to switch the positions of the latter 2.

Will I be able to do this simply by reversing "right" and "bottom" under Placement?
putting 'right' there will bring the playing now (in your case the cover art) info to the right, but it wont change the position of the details of the highlighted track. but i guess you found that out already..
i doubt if there is anything you can do about the position of that... but maybe somebody else knows.

 :)
gab

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mabes

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Re: fooling around with theater view skins
« Reply #25 on: December 23, 2008, 04:01:58 pm »

putting 'right' there will bring the playing now (in your case the cover art) info to the right, but it wont change the position of the details of the highlighted track. but i guess you found that out already..
i doubt if there is anything you can do about the position of that... but maybe somebody else knows.

 :)
gab


I haven't tried it yet, I wanted to see if it would be simple to do. When I say the details of the highlighted track, I don't mean the text listing on the upper left, just the little album thumbnail with track name, number, file type etc to the right of the list of tracks. And the thumbnail itself, seems like changing it to "bottom" would do it if I can figure out exactly what it is named.

Am I clear that when you copy the existing file for the skin and then rename it that you can then choose it from skin manager?
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gappie

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Re: fooling around with theater view skins
« Reply #26 on: December 23, 2008, 04:10:52 pm »

I haven't tried it yet, I wanted to see if it would be simple to do. When I say the details of the highlighted track, I don't mean the text listing on the upper left, just the track name, number, file type etc that appears beside the little album thumbnail to the right of the list of tracks. And the thumbnail itself, seems like changing it to "bottom" would do it if I can figure out exactly what it is named.

Am I clear that when you copy the existing file for the skin and then rename it that you can then choose it from skin manager?
yes you are/can.. copying it and renaming it gives you an other skin, but when you want to use the new obsidian, you will not find those layout parts in it. there is a post on the 13 board that explains how to get those in the new obsidian. http://yabb.jriver.com/interact/index.php?topic=49695.0

as you might notice it does look a bit different than the stuff in this thread which was based on 12. the idea is still the same though..

 :)
have fun
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mabes

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Re: fooling around with theater view skins
« Reply #27 on: December 23, 2008, 05:14:04 pm »

I'll give it a shot, but looking again at the picture at the top of the post, I think I like that better. Before I didn't see the small thumbnails on the right.
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dgilgonzalez

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Re: fooling around with theater view skins
« Reply #28 on: December 23, 2008, 05:23:31 pm »

Gappie,

could you tell me, on the Playing Now screen you pasted, what I have to modify to add at the left the navigation buttons?? i have tried by myself, but no way...

Thanks and regards

Daniel
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dgilgonzalez

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Re: fooling around with theater view skins
« Reply #29 on: December 23, 2008, 05:42:58 pm »

Finally I done with this:

<Item Name="Navigation" Base="NavigationBackground" Condition="If(Search, 0, 1)" Placement="Left" Size="30%" />      
<Item Name="PIP" Base="NavigationBackground" Placement="Center" Size="100%" Crop="1%" />
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mabes

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Re: fooling around with theater view skins
« Reply #30 on: December 23, 2008, 07:23:02 pm »



So far this is all I'm able to manage. I can't get rid of the far right column, not a big deal though, and I would like to  eliminate the small thumbnails beside the list of songs,  but I can't see how to do it.

Even so I'm really liking this view, thanks!
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gappie

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Re: fooling around with theater view skins
« Reply #31 on: December 24, 2008, 03:58:20 am »

Finally I done with this:

<Item Name="Navigation" Base="NavigationBackground" Condition="If(Search, 0, 1)" Placement="Left" Size="30%" />      
<Item Name="PIP" Base="NavigationBackground" Placement="Center" Size="100%" Crop="1%" />

did this work? are you using 12 or 13. the upperpost was made in mc12
in 13 to get the look i have in the upper post, but with the rollerbar i used this:
Code: [Select]
<Layout Name="Playing Now" Location="Playing Now\***" >
<!-- Background area -->
<Item Name="ViewBackground" Placement="All" />

<!-- Overscan area -->
<Item Name="" Base="ViewBackground" Placement="Left" Size="[Overscan Left]" />
<Item Name="" Base="ViewBackground" Placement="Top" Size="[Overscan Top]" />
<Item Name="" Base="ViewBackground" Placement="Right" Size="[Overscan Right]" />
<Item Name="" Base="ViewBackground" Placement="Bottom" Size="[Overscan Bottom]" />

<!-- Content area -->
<Item Name="NavigationRoller" Base="ViewBackground" Placement="Top" Size="[Large Text Height] + [Medium Text Height] + (2 * [List Internal Margins Height])" />
<Item Name="Titlebar" Base="NavigationRoller" Placement="Top" Size="[Large Text Height] + [List Internal Margins Height]" />
<Item Name="Statusbar" Base="ViewBackground" Condition="If(Statusbar, 1, 0)" Placement="Bottom" Size="[Medium Text Height] + 16" Crop="8" />
<Item Name="PIP" Base="ViewBackground" Placement="Left" Size="65%" Crop="1%" />
<Item Name="View" Base="ViewBackground" Placement="All" />

</Layout>

when you take the navigationroller and the titlebar away you get the same look as the upperpost one but then in 13..

 :)
gab
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gappie

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Re: fooling around with theater view skins
« Reply #32 on: December 24, 2008, 04:00:11 am »



So far this is all I'm able to manage. I can't get rid of the far right column, not a big deal though, and I would like to  eliminate the small thumbnails beside the list of songs,  but I can't see how to do it.

Even so I'm really liking this view, thanks!

with the far right column you mean the bigger cover art? to get rid of that you just can delete the whole sentence with the name PIP.


 :)
gab
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mabes

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Re: fooling around with theater view skins
« Reply #33 on: December 24, 2008, 09:25:29 am »

with the far right column you mean the bigger cover art? to get rid of that you just can delete the whole sentence with the name PIP.


 :)
gab

No I want the big cover art, but it's on the left, is that what you meant. But you know it's really not a big deal, I discovered the Toggle List View and there is another view that doesn't have that section on the far right. That's the view I would use when playing an entire album (though I would like to get rid of the small album thumbnails for each song)

For a mixed playlist, the view in the picture is good. Well, again except for the little tiny thumbnails. I don't really see the point, you can't really see them even on a 51 inch screen.  Maybe some people like them.

The view you have at the top of the thread, is that skin downloadable?
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gappie

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Re: fooling around with theater view skins
« Reply #34 on: December 24, 2008, 10:50:42 am »


The view you have at the top of the thread, is that skin downloadable?
no, its not downloadable. that is because i made to much things in it that will only 'work' (= look good) the way i configured thv. but i could mail it to you, when you want to take things/change some things to let it work for you.. its a mc12 skin wich does work under 13, but does not use the roller stuff of 13..
when you want it, pm me your email adres, and ill send it tomorow to you...

now of to the christmas dinner..  :P

 :)
gab
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raym

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Re: fooling around with theater view skins
« Reply #35 on: January 04, 2009, 01:16:43 am »

Hi gappie. I'm trying to put a small PIP window in the bottom left corner of Playing Now and/or the Main Menu in the new Obsidian skin. I used to be able to achieve this by defining the following in the old skins...

Code: [Select]
<Layout Name="Playing Now" Location="Playing Now\***" >
   <!-- Navigation area -->
   <Item Name="NavigationBackground" Placement="Left" Size="[Button Width] + [Overscan Left]" />
   ...
   <Item Name="PIP" Base="NavigationBackground" Placement="bottom" Size="15%" Crop="1%"/>
</Layout>

.. but I can't get anything like this working anymore due to the lack of left-hand-side nav area. Orientation options are either top, bottom, left or right ONLY it seems? Unless I'm missing something. Any ideas?

Thanks.
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gappie

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Re: fooling around with theater view skins
« Reply #36 on: January 09, 2009, 09:23:42 am »

hi raym,
i dont know if in the mean time you found a solution yourself. was enjoying an early spring in london.
im not sure what you want to achieve visually, but maybe this helps:

Code: [Select]
<Item Name="Pippy" Base="ViewBackground" Placement="Bottom" Size="49.5%" />
<Item Name="PIP" Base="Pippy" Placement="Right" Size="49.5%" Crop="1%" />
as you can see i defined a new area called Pippy, which i placed in the bottom. and at the right side in pippy i placed the pip.

does that give a new idea..

 :)
gab
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raym

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Re: fooling around with theater view skins
« Reply #37 on: January 09, 2009, 09:42:13 pm »

i  dont know if in the mean time you found a solution yourself. was enjoying an early spring in london.

Thanks Gab. I ended up doing something similar but thanks all the same. Hope you had a great trip!
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HTPC4ME

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Re: fooling around with theater view skins
« Reply #38 on: September 05, 2009, 07:33:16 pm »

hi gappie, in jriver 13-14 theaterview there is animation playing on every screen... Can we change that animation to our own? say rain drops, or falling stars, or water liquifying background? ive looked in program files but can't seem to find a gif type file that is bein used now? really would love to customize it with my own animations

TY
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raym

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Re: fooling around with theater view skins
« Reply #39 on: September 11, 2009, 08:07:26 pm »

Can we change that animation to our own? say rain drops, or falling stars, or water liquifying background?

The default image for MC14 backgrounds lives here: C:\Program Files\J River\Media Center 14\Skins\Theater View\Shared\Animation

If you take a look at the main.xml for your skin (assuming Obsidian) you should see some code like this:

  <ANIMATION>
    <Background Bitmap="..\Shared\Animation\Background.png" Alpha="100" Mode="2" />
  </ANIMATION>

You can point to whatever image you like here.  Have a play with the "Alpha" setting if required too.
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maid

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Re: fooling around with theater view skins
« Reply #40 on: October 09, 2009, 07:08:23 pm »

Hello Gappie,

I love the Acajou theatre skin but there is no play menu on it anymore.

Would you be so kind as to show me how to add this top menu like in the Obsidan Touchscreen or even on a bar I dont really mind

Thanks
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gappie

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Re: fooling around with theater view skins
« Reply #41 on: October 10, 2009, 10:32:41 am »

Hello Gappie,

I love the Acajou theatre skin but there is no play menu on it anymore.

Would you be so kind as to show me how to add this top menu like in the Obsidan Touchscreen or even on a bar I dont really mind

Thanks
would you like the menues on audio etc, to be vertical also?
i can change the acajou file around so it would work and you have a starting point to finish it, and to see what is possible. im curious also how some things would end up, and since it will be raining tomorrow...

 :)
gab

BTW: i will put it in a new thread when the result is interesting enough, since most of this thread is about thv skins in version 12.  :)
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maid

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Re: fooling around with theater view skins
« Reply #42 on: October 10, 2009, 06:25:56 pm »

Hi Gappy,

That would be fab thank you so much.

Cheers
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gappie

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Re: fooling around with theater view skins in mc 12
« Reply #43 on: October 11, 2009, 06:09:21 am »

i started a new thread for mc 14 http://yabb.jriver.com/interact/index.php?topic=54343.0

gonna try to lock this thread now because most information in here is not valid anymore.

 :)
gab
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